Eagles Coach's Retort To Giants Fans: 'We Got Your Best Player'

The rivalry between the Eagles and Giants figures to heat up with Saquon Barkley defecting to Philadelphia.

Eagles RB Saquon Barkley / John McMullen/Eagles SI

PHILADELPHIA - The demarcation line between Eagles and Giants fans is near Trenton in Central New Jersey. There is plenty of overlap and no closed borders between the NFC East rivals.

And on occasion, Eagles' head coach Nick Sirianni will take some verbal shrapnel from the blue invaders from the north. This season, however, Sirianni has a retort at the ready.

"You know sometimes you see Giants fans around here with it being so close, and, you know, they give me a good, like, ‘Hey, go Giants,’” Sirianni told Eagles SI before minicamp practice on Tuesday. “And I typically let it go, but if the guy gets me good enough, I usually say, ‘You know, we got your best player.’”

The best player is former Giants star running back Saquon Barkley, who defected to the rival Eagles in free agency in March, signing a three-year, $37.5 million deal.

Although the Eagles had more than their share of successes against the Giants during Barkley's six seasons with the team, the Penn State product gave Philadelphia plenty of headaches with his playmaking ability.

Barkley rushed for 615 yards and seven touchdowns in nine career games against the Eagles, including 97 combined yards and two TDs when the Giants defeated the Eagles in their 2023 season finale, halting a five-game skid against Philadelphia in what turned out to be Barkley's final game with the organization.

The Giants won only two of those nine games, however, but Sirianni understands how dangerous Barkley can be even with a poor supporting cast.

"Saquon. It's really nice to see him in green," Sirianni said. "It's really nice to see him [here]. We missed a tackle on him the other day on the sidelines. Now, we're not tackling [in OTAs], but you can tell without pads on you can tell if that guy made the tackle or not. I had visions back of him, like, Saquon making somebody miss and doing it again -- it brought me back to that.

"I wasn't happy that our defensive player missed the tackle on this particular play, but I'm really happy that Saquon, that No. 26 is on our side making the guy miss."

Barkley and the Eagles will face the Giants this upcoming season in Weeks 7 and 18. The former will be Barkley's return to MetLife Stadium on Oct. 20.

"When I told [my daughter] that we're going to be going to Philly, she kind of was just like, 'Does that mean we're going to win now?' And I just started smiling again and I was like, 'Hopefully. Hopefully we can win some more games,'" Barkley joked earlier this spring.

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